“The Art of Tron: Legacy” by Justin Springer

Has anybody seen The Art of Tron: Legacy? Is it worth purchasing? It looks like Disney Editions is copying Chronicle’s popular wide-rectangular ‘art of’ book format. The book sells for $26.40 on Amazon.

Excerpts from the catalog description:

The Art of Tron: Legacy is a view into not only the creation of the 2010 film, but will also contain never-before-seen looks at the design and creation of 1982’s original Tron. Written by co-producer Justin Springer, the book will spotlight the technical wizardry, imagination, artistry, and passion that brought this project to life. From concept art and designs, to profiles on the characters and the actors playing them, to on-set photography and visuals from the movie itself, every step of the film’s creation will be broken down and laid out for the reader. In addition, this title will also have a preface by Joseph Kosinski, the director of Tron Legacy; and a foreword by Steven Lisberger, the director of the original Tron and producer of Tron Legacy. The book will use special fluorescent inks to make the illuminated world of Tron come to life, and is sure to be a must-have coffee table edition for the holidays.

Seen it at a store. It’s not that great as an artbook. Most of the images are stills. There is some concept art stuff, but not enough to justify a purchase if the art is all you’re interested in… IMO

http://dtoons.com/conroy Some guy who goes to SCAD

That cover looks really neat!

Captain Hollywood

I agree with Johnno- it’s not the most spectacular ‘art of’ book. I’d wait for a big sale.

Karen

I got the book as a gift.

It’s sad–having seen the film and this book. Horrible movie, and very badly designed. The so-called “concept art” artwork have very little in the way of “concepts.” Just junk that looks like blacklight paintings popular in the late ’60′s. The original Tron had some basic logic to the design (although the movie was boring). Any thought of some basic logic was tossed out with both the script AND the design of this film. Honestly,the film is colorless, unimaginative, and just plain boring. From a visual standpoint, the film looks more like a day-glo version of Cannonball Run than anything set in the computer.

There’s even very little “geek” factor to enjoy.

MAJOR misfire, although I’m sure Disney’s already spent more on marketing this film than they did making it.

If you want to buy this book, I suggest waiting until February, when it’ll be in the bargain bin all over the place–along with the film.

TheBeezKneez

It seems that the overall theme for the concepts for the movie was “Tron in an Industrial goth night club and everything is shiny.” The art is slick, clean and well made, unfortunately it’s kind of gimped from the get-go as you can only do so much when basing it off of another artist’s brilliant work (Syd Mead). It’s derivative, but that’s no fault of the artists involved.

Another book for the collection but not one I’d pull for inspiration.

http://www.cartoonresearch.com Jerry Beck

I was sent the TRON LEGACY book to review (Thank you, Disney Editions), but did them a favor and kept my opinion to myself. It is simply filled with full or half-page photographs, one or two per page, very few pre-production paintings and very light text. Unless you are a TRON fanatic and need to have everything connected to this film, I’d say skip it.

As for Disney Editions “copying Chronicle popular wide-rectangle Art-Of books”, their ALICE IN WONDERLAND: A VISUAL COMPANION by Mark Salisbury from earlier in the year is more so a direct swipe of the Chronicle style (and it’s a pretty good book). Insight Editions (Art of Kung Fu Panda) and Newmarket Press (Art of How To Train Your Dragon) have been successfully aping the Chronicle Art-Of’s for several years. As long as the art contained within is good, I see nothing wrong with these projects. In fact I think they are usually a terrific record of each films production process.

http://www.nilseckhardt.com Nils

To me the TRON artbook seems to be more like a portfolio or a presentation to promote the movie.

Yesterday I saw the artbook of TANGLED: that’s how it should be!
It’s packed with drawings and paintings of character- and setdesign and loads of storyboard panels. There you can not only see but feel how deep the artists got into the fairytale theme to create a lovely scenery.

THAT is an artbook!

Frank Ziegler

Flipped through it at the store. Did Syd Meade help out on designs or was he not involved?

PeteR

Frankly the film and book looks “designed (cough, cough)” by a bunch of fanboy art school rejects.

I took a gamble and bought it off Amazon. As a comic, art book collector, I am *sorely* disappointed. Apparently, the entire palette of the movie consists of mono-chromatic blue, or green, and the occasional white. It also has far, far too many screenshots, and 3d model shots.

Moebius and Syd Mead didn’t work on Tron Legacy, and boy does it show. The book is just full of all kinds of bland.

http://www.captainyolk.com Jeremy Bernstein

I felt the same as “Johnno” above. Where is the art?? Too many photos from the film and not enough of the thought process that went into the designs. I aint buying it!

http://www.mukpuddy.com Mukpuddy

That sux that the book is lame, especially since we thought the film was GREAT!! It deserves a cool “Art Of” book for sure!

Charles

The concept artists behind this stunning reboot of TRON are doing a book signing at Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra this Saturday! See below for more info.

Nucleus welcomes some of these amazing talents to present and discuss their contributions to the film. Following the presentation, there will be a Q&A session and book signing. This is a rare opportunity to get an insider’s look at the production of an epic film. Artists in attendance will be signing copies of the new Art of Tron: Legacy.

Rick

I liked the film. No, it isn’t an evergreen “I gotta see it 900 times and memorize the plot” kinda film, but as a followup to the original, it was the kind of mid-level film we would get back in the 80s.

The story was, to me, more interesting than the original.

The father-son stuff worked for me, the kid waking up and getting his life together aspects at the end I liked, and the effects sequences were fun and fast paced without being the whole movie.